News

With the furore surrounding the arrival of Ben Spies in World Superbike it is tempting to think that Yamaha signed only one impressive rookie for the 2009 season. But in Tom Sykes, now sixth in the championship standings after his best weekend of the year, Yamaha has two top notch riders who may be short on WSB experience, but are long on talent and speed.

At Assen, the combination of fourth and sixth made for Sykes' best aggregate score of the year, and moved him to within striking position of fifth, or even fourth place, with only four rounds completed.

The most encouraging thing for Yamaha is that their other rider I was far from satisfied with each and every aspect of his best weekend so far, normally a sign of greater things to come.

"The first race went OK, I was pretty pleased with the results," said Sykes, "I managed to make a couple of passes early and move up but then lost some feeling in the front which held me back. Race two was not what I expected. I got a horrendous start and left myself a lot of work to do. I worked hard over the next few laps to make some passes but unfortunately let the front group get away. I was bitterly disappointed with that because I knew I could run with the front. I'd just like to thank all the boys for this weekend putting so much hard work in. We had two offs and I left them with some work to do but they came through and had my bikes ready for me to race."